Vintage clothing lover Phoebe Swift decides to open up her own vintage dress store. Between searching for and mending old clothes, Phoebe’s store allows her forget about her ex-fiancé as well as forget her guilt over the recent death of her best friend. When she is contacted by the elderly Mrs. Bell who wants to sell her entire wardrobe, Phoebe becomes immersed in the narratives behind Mrs. Bell’s clothes. Can Mrs. Bell’s stories help Phoebe to let go of her guilt and move on with her life?
This is a book about friendship and loss and of course, we can’t have a book without a World War II story woven in. I liked Mrs. Bell however when she tells her childhood story it is just pages and pages of text and dialogue. I would have liked it more if it was in some sort of flashback narrative or we saw the action happening rather than just Mrs. Bell telling Phoebe everything.
There is some romance in the book although it is not a large part of the plot. There is a bit of a love triangle (or quadruple?) between Phoebe, the two new guys she meets, and the ex-fiancé who is kind of always lurking in the background. Honestly, I’m not sure I liked any of the guys in the book – none of them seemed right for Phoebe. I also wouldn’t characterize this book as chick-lit or romance. Maybe it should be shelved under the dreaded “women’s fiction”?
Many of the reviews I’ve read for this book have said that they would have liked to see pictures of all the clothes described in the book and I have to agree. All of the clothes are beautifully described and the author seems to have an incredible knowledge of vintage fashion. There was fashion name dropping all over the place and although I only recognized a couple of names, it was clear the author knew what she was talking about. (Side note – I just looked up the author on her website and there is nothing about fashion or her working in fashion. From the detail in the novel I was sure Isabel Wolff used to work in some sort of fashion area but I guess it’s possible she is just a good researcher.)
I really enjoyed Phoebe’s mom. I’m not sure if she was meant to be comical but I always found myself laughing whenever she would call Phoebe. Phoebe’s mother and father separated when her father’s younger mistress became pregnant so Phoebe’s mother is obsessed with youth and calls and talks to Phoebe all the time about all the plastic surgery and facial treatments she wants to get. Again, not sure if it was intentional, but I found her to be great comic relief.
This was a charming book that I enjoyed but I felt like it was missing something. I’m not sure what though. I just kind of had a shruggy feeling when I finished reading the last page and the book ended and thought to myself “okay”.
That being said, vintage clothing enthusiasts will probably love this book just for all the fashion.
Leave a Reply